Thursday, November 1, 2012

And I'm Back

He’s bbbaaaaacckkkkkk. I’ve spent the last few weeks
fighting for the resistance in a far-off land. While I was gone, Iowa football
is giving performances reminiscent of the 70’s,
Notre Dame apparently is a power again and Bill Snyder continues to be an ageless
wonder performing miracles in a small Kansas town.

Lets get right to it.

GAME OF THE WEEK: #1 Alabama
(8-0, 5-0) vs. #5 LSU (7-1, 3-1); 7 p.m.

Old Conventional Wisdom: low scoring games are boring.

New Conventional Wisdom: When two teams keep one another
under 10 points, they should play again in the national championship game.

Alabama is a very, very, very good football team. They run,
they block, they tackle, they hit, they pass, they catch, they hold up four
fingers as you go to the fourth quarter, yada, yada, yada.

LSU is a very, very good football team. They are loaded with
NFL talent, have quickness everywhere, they run the ball, they tackle, they hit
you, they have atmosphere, and there is a real tiger for heaven’s sake. Yada,
yada, yada.

Same team. One has a QB, Alabama’s A.J. McCarron. One has
home field advantage.I would
write more about this, but frankly there are thousands of stories out there on
the details. I’m interested in the results.

The Line: Bama is
a nine-point favorite.

The Pick: Oh sure
Bama won 21-0 in the BCS Championship AND LSU lost to Florida, but come
on.Alabama 21 LSU 14.

I don’t know what’s wrong with the Big Ten this year. What’s
up is down and what’s down is paper. See, it makes no sense.

Nebraska controls its destiny in the Legends Division. They
lead the B1G in scoring, total offense and rushing…and Taylor Martinez is STILL
their QB. Of course, Rex Burkhead is still the feature back. Although he may
not play this weekend.

Michigan State may have saved their season with an overtime
win over Wisconsin. Sparty’s defense is stout, seventh-ranked stout. Their
offense is what we call, le Awful.Le’Von Bell is averaging 117.9 yards per game, but that’s about it.

The Line: State
started as a 1.5-point favorite, but it is currently Nebraska favored by 2.

Iowa’s offense is non-functioning. 100th in
passing, 107th in scoring. James Vanderberg has no one to throw to,
and no one to hand off to. New coordinator Greg Davis subscribes to the dink
and dunk theory of Ken O’Keefe. The Defense is young but they can’t win it
themselves.

Indiana has not completely checked out of football for
basketball. They beat Illinois and in a scandal plagued and otherwise awful
Leaders Division…they could go to the Championship game if they win out. Could being the operative word.

They can score- 34.3 ppg, but they are awful against the
run. If Iowa can run…a big if. My heart thinks Iowa is better than IU, but its
on the road and Indiana will score no matter whose at QB.

The Line: Indiana
by 1.

The Pick: Indiana
31 Iowa 17.

#12 Oklahoma (5-2,
3-1) at Iowa State (5-3, 2-3) 11 a.m., ABC.

The only drama here is picking the right point spread.
Oklahoma will whip up on the Cyclones.

Sooners are mad. Iowa State beat Baylor and only needs to
beat Kansas on November 17th for a bowl appearances. Big talk from
Clone fans that ISU takes down one really good team per year. Not this week.

The Line: Sooners
by 11.5

The Pick: Oklahoma 35 ISU 10.

#24 Oklahoma State
(5-2, 3-1) at #2 K-State (8-0, 5-0). 7 p.m. ABC.

I think Kansas State is a good football team. However, the
notion that they have already won out really bothers me. This is an extremely
dangerous team and game.

The Cowboys are 7th in points and 1st
in total offense. Their defense wasn’t good to start the year, but has been
better lately.

K-State of course has Collin Klein.12 TDs and 2 Ints along with 634
rushing yards. He’s a beast.The
Wildcats are 6th in scoring. The defense isn’t going to stop OSU.

I believe that KSU should be on major upset alert. If the
Cowboys offense gets rolling, I don’t think KSU can keep up.

The Line: Cats by 9.5.

The Pick: My
belief is that K-State is going to trip up. This looks like the spot…too much
overconfidence, too much looking ahead from a team that is good, but I’m not
sure they are great.OSU 31 KSU
30.